Trinity River Wildlife Refuge expanding

Eighty-one acres of waterfowl habitat will be added to the Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge thanks to money from the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission.

Eighty-one acres of waterfowl habitat will be added to the Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge thanks to money from the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission.

Photo: SUBMITTED BY STUART MARCUS

Photo: SUBMITTED BY STUART MARCUS

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Eighty-one acres of waterfowl habitat will be added to the Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge thanks to money from the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission.

Eighty-one acres of waterfowl habitat will be added to the Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge thanks to money from the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission.

Photo: SUBMITTED BY STUART MARCUS

Trinity River Wildlife Refuge expanding

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The Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge will soon acquire more land and a new boardwalk.

The Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge (TRNWR) is to receive $44,700 for the purchase of an additional 81 acres in the Trinity River floodplain from the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission.

This is TRNWR’s share of $28 million in funds from the commission for the acquisition of mare than 9,000 acres of waterfowl habitat to be added to the National Wildlife Refuge System nation wide.

The Migratory Bird Conservation Commission was created in 1929 by an act of Congress to approve or deny the acquisition of land or water habitat recommended by the Secretary of the Interior.

The commission is made up of the Interior Secretary, two U. S. senators, two members of the House of Representatives, the Secretary of Agriculture, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and the realty division chief of the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Funds for habitat purchases are obtained from the sale of “Duck Stamps,” import duties on arms and ammunition, the sale of refuge admission permits, and money appropriated through the Wetlands Loan Act, along with money obtained by the sale of rights of way across refuges and land sold by the refuge system.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service website 60.5 percent of the TRNWR land was acquired with money from the sale of “Duck Stamps.”

The new 2013-2014 stamps for this program will go on sale at the end of June.

According to the service’s recent press release, “The commission approved close to $4 million in projects for land purchases and leases on three refuges with funds raised largely through the sale of Federal Duck Stamps. In addition, the panel approved $23.7 million in grants through the North American Wetlands Conservation Act to protect, restore or enhance nearly 89,000 acres of habitat for migratory birds in the United States and Canada, leveraging $28.5 million in matching funds.”

“The commission's work protects some of the most valued — and threatened — habitats on the continent,” Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe said, “Wetlands support birds all along their migratory routes, and these projects will improve habitat for species as they move northward this summer.”

TRNWR will also benefit from a National Recreational Trails Fund grant of $45,000 to the Friends of Trinity River Refuge by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

Refuge Manager Stuart Marcus sent out a press release saying, “The funds from this grant will be used to construct a 500-foot boardwalk over Palmer Bayou and adjacent wetlands on the Knobby Knees Trail. The From Crosswalks to Boardwalks Project was designed by the Refuge and the City of Liberty to connect citizens to nature.”

The boardwalk will be made of recycled plastic and is expected to be completed early in 2014. When completed, it will make an additional nine and a half miles of trail accessible from the Liberty Municipal Park entrance to the refuge.